[Mailman-Users] Solved, sorry, was: Re: help wanted: debian woody mailman suddenly stopped with (seemingly) qrunner lock file problem

Ziegler Gábor ziegler at alpha.tmit.bme.hu
Thu Dec 16 23:47:14 CET 2004


Hi everybody,

I am embarrassed, since RTFM was the solution: Possibly item 8.) of 
http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq03.014.htp

May all the spammers die a VERY lengthy and painful death then may they 
go to hell forever :-(

Cheers,

Gabor

Ziegler Gábor wrote:
> Dear gurus,
> 
> I run a fairly low-traffic mailman on a stock debian woody server, which 
> suddenly stopped to work. I am clueless and looking for help. Details below
> 
> My system:
> ---------
> Debian stable (stock deban woody, regularly updated from 
> security.debian.org)
> Debianized stock mailman package v.2.0.11
> Debianized stock Exim package: version 3.35 #1 built 07-May-2004 08:25:17
> 
> Symptomps:
> ----------
> A few days ago the server suddenly stopped to process incoming messages, 
> they just accumulate in the qfiles subdir.  Admin access via web  is 
> working, I can add users, etc. No pending mails reported by the web 
> admin gui. Mails are accepted by the MTA w/o complaints, no mail goes 
> out to lists, though. Nothing. The non-mailman-related SMTP traffic 
> flows as normal.
> 
> The server has been running for years w/o any real problem. Running 
> out-of-disk-space has happened earlier, but cleaning-up some disk-space 
> has always solved problems.
> 
> Below comes the summary of my investigations. I am totally clueless 
> about the problem any help is highly appreciated.
> 
> I repeat: the server has worked for years, no (intentional) config 
> changes has happened. There was, however, reports of the server running 
> out-of diskspace by a list-admin, but that has been taken care already.
> 
> Zeroth examination: disk space check:
> -------------------
> df -h
> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/hdb1             1.9G  1.8G  116M  94% /
> /dev/hdb5             3.9G  3.6G  163M  96% /home
> /dev/hdb3             1.9G  1.2G  738M  61% /var
> /dev/hdb6             3.9G  3.1G  724M  81% /usr/local
> /dev/hda1             7.6M  5.6M  1.6M  78% /boot
> /dev/hda2             4.7G  3.2G  1.2G  72% /archives-hda2
> 
> Note, there is plenty of disk space in /var.
> 
> First examination: SMTP works
> -----------------------------
> According to the logs exim delivers: just an example from the Exim's 
> mainlog, showing a succesful delivery to mailman-list "nsht":
> 
> 2004-12-15 08:34:11 1CeTfn-0002e9-00 <= XXXXXX at tmit.bme.hu 
> H=david.tmit.bme.hu [152.66.246.102] P=esmtp S=1865 
> id=Pine.GSO.3.96.1041215083328.21437A-100000 at david.tmit.bme.hu
> 2004-12-15 08:34:12 1CeTfn-0002e9-00 => nsht <nsht at leda.tmit.bme.hu> 
> D=list_director T=list_transport
> 2004-12-15 08:34:12 1CeTfn-0002e9-00 Completed
> 
> Furthermore, I actively use this Exim as my everyday default SMTP MTA, 
> works just fine fine.
> 
> Second examination:  The messages seems to reach the qfiles directory.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> There are various entries like this:
> f0fb10de9b998a5a185~aa29819f1395b9.db    size:115  date:Dec 15 23:03
> f0fb10de9b998a5a185~a29819f1395b9.msg    size:825  date:Dec 15 23:03
> The content of a .db file:
> leda:/var/lib/mailman/qfiles# cat -vte 
> f0fb10de9b998a5a1858842d62aa29819f1395b9.db
> {s^F^@^@^@tolisti^A^@^@^@s^G^@^@^@versioni^B^@^@^@s^H^@^@^@listnames^D^@^@^@nshts^H^@^@^@filebases(^@^@^@f0fb10de9b998a5a18 
> 
> The content of the .msg file seems normal SMTP envelope and body
> 
> The biggest .msg file in this directory is 6656 bytes, therefore 
> disk-free-space cannot be the issue.
> 
> Third examination: perms seems to O.K.
> --------------------------------------
> leda:/var/lib/mailman/qfiles# check_perms
> No problems found
> 
> Fourth examination: checking database of the list of the reporting 
> list-admin for list "nsht"
> --------------------------------------------------------
> leda:/var/lib/mailman/qfiles# check_db nsht
> /var/lib/mailman/lists/nsht/config.db is fine
> /var/lib/mailman/lists/nsht/config.db.last is fine
> 
> Note, that no lists seems to work on the server (there are some tens of 
> lists), neither "nsht" nor others.
> 
> 
> Fifth examination: checking crontab for mailman
> -----------------------------------------------
> leda:/var/lib/mailman/qfiles# cat /etc/cron.d/mailman
> 12,42 * * * *   list    [ -x /usr/bin/python -a -f 
> /usr/lib/mailman/cron/run_queue ] && /usr/bin/python 
> /usr/lib/mailman/cron/run_queue
> # */5 * * * *   list    [ -x /usr/bin/python -a -f 
> /usr/lib/mailman/cron/gate_news ] && /usr/bin/python 
> /usr/lib/mailman/cron/gate_news
> * * * * *       list    [ -x /usr/bin/python -a -f 
> /usr/lib/mailman/cron/qrunner ] && /usr/bin/python 
> /usr/lib/mailman/cron/qrunner
> 
> Cron daemon is up and running. Qrunner script runs every minutes. See 
> next examination
> 
> Sixth examination: checking mailman logs
> --------------------------------------------
> Everything seems to normal, except that qrunner continually  emits 
> errors at each run to /var/lib/mailman/logs/error, such as these:
> 
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367): Traceback (most recent call last):
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/mailman/cron/qrunner", line 283, in ?
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      kids = main(lock)
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/mailman/cron/qrunner", line 253, in main
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      keepqueued =
> dispose_message(mlist, msg, msgdata)
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/mailman/cron/qrunner", line 121, in dispose_message
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      if
> BouncerAPI.ScanMessages(mlist, mimemsg):
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/Bouncers/BouncerAPI.py", line 59, in ScanMessages
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      addrs = func(msg)
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/Bouncers/Postfix.py", line 39, in process
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      more = mfile.next()
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/python2.1/multifile.py", line 123, in next
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      while self.readline(): pass
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/python2.1/multifile.py", line 95, in readline
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      if marker ==
> self.section_divider(sep):
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):   File
> "/usr/lib/python2.1/multifile.py", line 159, in section_divider
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367):      return "--" + str
> Dec 16 00:06:02 2004 qrunner(18367): TypeError :  cannot add type "None"
> to string
> 
> My attempts to fix the seemingly lock file problem:
> --------------------------------------------------
> 1. Since the reporting list-admin claimed temporary ran-out-of-diskspace 
> situation. I double checked the available free space.
> 
> 2. I have stopped crond, inetd. I have checked that no python process is 
> lurking around, then I have checked with "lsof" that any of the 
> lock-files in /var/lib/mailman/locks/ are not held open by anyone. All 
> lock files was older than several months(!). I have deleted all 
> lockfiles. Restarted crontab, inetd. Qrunner still fails with the above 
> error log.
> 
> 3. as a last attempt i have sacrified my 135 days uptime :-( and I have 
> rebooted the system, hoping that the Microsoft approach might help.
> The system rebooted just fine, but mailman (qrunner) still does not work.
> 
> Now I am out of ideas.
> Any advice?
> 
> Thanks:
> Gábor
> 




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